Playgrounds, sandboxes, or sand on the beach: they are all great places for children to play. As we know, kids “like to be dirty” or to build sand castles. Sadly, the little builders are stalked by a dangerous enemy that can ruin their health permanently. In unprotected playgrounds, freely roaming dogs and cats may leave “souvenirs” in the sand, when their owners let them loose and do not clean their excrement. Children get their hands dirty, put them in their mouth, and just like that, become hosts to some of the extremely dangerous parasitic diseases, such as toxoplasmosis and toxocariasis. Cute kitties and puppies Does your child want a dog or a cat, preferably a small and fluffy one? Or […]

Do you remember the movie “Alien”, in which extra-terrestrials burrowed into flesh of a space ship’s crew members, slowly taking over the control of their behavior, while eating the hosts from the inside? If you believe such a scenario belongs only in the realm of fantasy, then you are mistaken. The alien stowaway is very close. Crawling, shape-shifting beings may enter our bodies whenever we eat a steak tartare or a rare one. An alien can attack us when we cut meat on the same chopping board we use to prepare other foods. It may enter our bodies by contact with an outdoor cat’s feces, because it is cats that are the final prey of the invisible foe. Parasites, whose […]

What are pesticides and how do they work? Pesticides utilized in agriculture are synthetic or natural substances used to combat dangerous or unwanted organisms, and are used for crop protection. Pesticides can have an extremely beneficial effect on increasing food production, by reducing the losses in agriculture. However, the negative effects accumulate, ultimately outweighing the positive ones many times over. Since they are poisons, pesticides can be highly dangerous for the human body as well as other living beings. They became popular after WWII and started being used in order to increase food production (which was crucial considering the post-war destruction) and to help avoid famine. Currently, 3.2 million tons of pesticides are used worldwide per year. Farmers’ lack of […]

Detoxification of the liver and causes of its dysfunctions A dysfunctional liver detoxification process leads to an accumulation of toxins, both external (taken in from the environment) as well as internal (produced by sources such as harmful microorganisms). For example, endogenous alcohol, is much more active than the exogenous one. This causes phenomena such as losing consciousness after drinking only a small amount of beer, wine, or spirit. Why? The drunk alcohol cumulates with endogenous alcohol, changing consciousness and perception. There have been situations when court medicine has acquitted people in such cases. If the liver does not fulfil its role correctly, the brain comes under attack. If the liver was able to detox all of the toxins, there would […]